Live Well Anyway

On today’s episode of Cultivating the Lovely, MacKenzie talks with her good friend Katie Duckett all about the little things they are doing to recapture that sense of who they are as individuals. This episode is all about recovering from challenging times, and even thriving in the midst of them. We hope this conversation will leave you encouraged!

• MacKenzie shares about writing a list of the things that make her feel like herself
• The value of this time to re-evaluate what aspects of our lives are really important to us
• Katie and MacKenzie share the little “vanities” that they had to grapple with when they were taken away
• The importance of regular anchor points to fill our souls
• What makes us each feel alive is unique and different
• MacKenzie tells how she recognized how important it is to her to have outside activities
• How a sort of home church has developed among MacKenzie’s group of friends

We have a God who loves to give us good gifts, and He knows our hearts and what we need.

• The little things that MacKenzie and Katie like to do to feel like the best versions of themselves
• Taking the time to ask the questions about what is important to your family
• Setting up a new tone or structure for the summer to help rest and regroup
• The ways that appreciating and noticing beauty transforms us
• Finding ways to intentionally create spaces that give you room to breathe
• “Have you heard about pasta salad?”
• Katie’s self-tanning regimen

Affiliate links are used in this content.

The Royal We

The Heir Affair

Hamilton

This episode of Cultivating the Lovely is brought to you by True Botanicals. CTL Listeners can get 15% OFF their first order from truebotanicals.com/lovely.

You can find Katie Duckett on Instagram @may_these_arrows_fly.

You can find MacKenzie Koppa on Instagram, Facebook, and the CTL Facebook Group, of course! Join us on Patreon at Patreon.com/CultivatingtheLovely.

On today’s episode of Cultivating the Lovely, MacKenzie talks with her good friend Chelle Bruzas about joy, hope and creating fun in the middle of really hard stuff in our current world. This is not meant to trivialize the huge issues going on right now, but to encourage you to find the light in the darkness and give your mind a break from the stress. So listen in, stop scrolling, maybe take a walk, and listen in to this uplifting conversation. (Affiliate links are used in this content.)

• Chelle talks about checking in on others and loving on new neighbors
• Looking back and seeing how God has given us grace for the hard days
• Holding our vision of the future loosely and surrendering to the Lord
• Doing something out of the ordinary to shake up the monotony
• Make it a priority to build community and be the friend you need
• Taking in beauty in the out of doors
• Find ways to have a gentler routine and a reward at the end of the day

Joy will make us stronger and more capable of dealing with all the heavy things around us.

• Making small steps in planning loosely to help move forward
• Harkening back to the days of Periscope with listing daily 3 Lovelies
• Announcing the CTL Summer of the RomCom!
  • Persuasion
  • Two Weeks Notice
  • You’ve Got Mail
  • The Proposal
  • Notting Hill
  • Kate and Leopold
  • One Fine Day
  • Runaway Bride
  • The Wedding Planner
  • Miss Congeniality
  • Hitch
  • While You Were Sleeping
  • Sleepless in Seattle
  • Something’s Gotta Give
• Being gracious and listening, even to those with whom we disagree

Try Softer by Aundi Kobler

The Popcast

You can find Chelle Bruzas on @chelle_bruzas.

You can find MacKenzie Koppa on Instagram, Facebook, and the CTL Facebook Group, of course! Join us on Patreon at Patreon.com/CultivatingtheLovely.

This episode of Cultivating the Lovely is brought to you by Plan to Eat meal planning service. Visit PlanToEat.com/LOVELY to start your free 60-day trial instead of the normal 30-day trial.

CTL is also brought to you by Little Passports. As a CTL listener, you can get 15% OFF the price of any subscription when you use coupon code LOVELY at checkout.

This week on Cultivating the Lovely, host MacKenzie Koppa chats with Rebecca Smith, founder of Better Life Bags and the author of the brand new book A Better Life: Slowing Down to Get Ahead. Rebecca and her husband live in Michigan with their four children and their dog Mojo. Together MacKenzie and Rebecca talk about building a business, podcasting and writing a book, plus so much more. (Affiliate links are used in this content.)

• Rebecca shares a little bit about her “Problem Solved” podcast episodes with Emily Thomas
• Rebecca talks about how she came to write this book, from starting a blog in her college days to getting asked by Zondervan to publish the story of her business
• What Rebecca hopes readers will glean from A Better Life

I think I have an idea of where my life is going, but God is the One who is making the decisions, and it’s kind of an adventure for us.

• How Rebecca’s vision and mission for Better Life Bags grew out of a desire to have certain boundaries in place
• Recognizing our limitations and bringing other people on board to balance out our weaknesses with their strengths
• Giving our children more responsibility for things around the house
• Being willing to turn around and get back on track when we have stepped out of God’s plan
• How Rebecca’s business has been affected by the pandemic
• A typical day in Rebecca’s life now in contrast to before the pandemic

Rebecca: relaxing in a hammock in the backyard

MacKenzie: dressing up for her birthday at home

Mom Struggling Well – Problem Solved

That Sounds Fun

10 Things to Tell You

Young House Love

Crime Junkie

You can find Rebecca on her website Better Life Bags. You can also follow her on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest.

You can find MacKenzie Koppa on Instagram, Facebook, and the CTL Facebook Group, of course! Join us on Patreon at Patreon.com/CultivatingtheLovely.

Today’s episode of Cultivating the Lovely is sponsored by True Botanicals. CTL Listeners can get 15% OFF their first order from true botanicals.com/lovely and use code LOVELY at checkout.

Want a little extra loveliness in your life? Join our Patreon community this month and enjoy the camaraderie with other ladies who are trying to do more than just survive in these crazy days. We can’t wait to see you there!

Today on Cultivating the Lovely, host MacKenzie Koppa talks with Joy Eggerichs Reed, founder of Punchline Speakers. Joy and her husband Matthew live and work in Paris, France with their daughter Millie. MacKenzie and Joy just have a fun chat covering a wide range of topics including Joy’s fun Instagram stories, home birth and living in France during the pandemic. So sit back, relax and enjoy this lively conversation! 

Want a little extra loveliness in your life? Join our Patreon community this month and enjoy the camaraderie with other ladies who are trying to do more than just survive in these crazy days. We can’t wait to see you there!

• Joy talks about how she and her husband ended up in Paris and what life is like there
• MacKenzie talks about her experience being a single working mom while doing school at home as well
• Joy shares how the quarantine has affected her family in Paris
• How Joy has navigated not speaking French and having her babies in France following a more natural approach
• MacKenzie shares a little about her own birth experiences and how she decided to have home births

If you don’t move to a place and have a posture of trying to laugh at things or try to understand them, then you will go crazy.

• Joy talks about making up an alter ego and voice for her daughter
• How and why the Reeds chose to announce pregnancies later than most
• The way the pandemic has changed Joy’s working life
• How the Reeds ended up in their fantastic location

Joy: spending time with Millie and making funny videos with her

MacKenzie: enjoying the flowers dropped off by her friends on May Day

Affiliate links are used in this content.

Hook

Little Women

The New York Times The Daily

You can find Joy on her website PunchlineSpeakers.com. You can also follow her on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

You can find MacKenzie Koppa on Instagram, Facebook, and the CTL Facebook Group, of course! Join us on Patreon at Patreon.com/CultivatingtheLovely.

Today’s episode of Cultivating the Lovely is sponsored by Little Passports. As a CTL listener, you can get 15% OFF the price of any subscription when you use coupon code LOVELY at checkout.

This episode of Cultivating the Lovely is also brought to you by Literati. For a limited time, go to Literati.com/lovely for 25% OFF your first two orders.

This week on Cultivating the Lovely, MacKenzie Koppa and Chelle Bruzas sit down and have a little real talk about how to have a better Mother’s Day in this season of lockdown by setting realistic expectations. We want to encourage you during this challenging time in your parenting journey to be gracious with each other, look outside of yourself and find the bright side.

• Talking to your family about what you would like for them to do
• Making your own backup plans for food and treating yourself
• Prepare yourself with realistic expectations of behavior
• Celebrate your children’s efforts to do things for you
• Chelle shares her heart for women for whom Mother’s Day is painful

The most perfectly worded Hallmark card will never hold a candle to personal words from someone.

• Some idea for gifting yourself and the other mothers in your life:
  • Flowers, of course!
  • Gift cards
  • Printed photos
  • Candles from a small business
  • Locally roasted coffee
  • Support small business
  • Books
• Making time to say and write about your love for your mom
• Plan for lighthearted fun and not take yourself so seriously
• Be encouraged!
• Giving and receiving forgiveness

The special deal to get in on all the online Patreon goodness for only $5/month is still going! Join now and enjoy being part of our rich, supportive online community!

You can find Chelle Bruzas on @chelle_bruzas.

You can find MacKenzie Koppa on Instagram, Facebook, and the CTL Facebook Group, of course! Join us on Patreon at Patreon.com/CultivatingtheLovely.

This episode of Cultivating the Lovely is brought to you by Embr. Save $70 off your own Embr Wave when you go to EmbrWave.com/lovely.

CTL is also brought to you by Plan to Eat meal planning service.Visit PlanToEat.com/LOVELY to start your free 60-day trial instead of the normal 30-day trial.

On today’s episode of Cultivating the Lovely, MacKenzie talks with her good friends Katie Duckett and Chelle Bruzas about clinging to celebrations and loveliness amidst the coronavirus crisis. This is a grace-filled, honest conversation that we hope will help you see the lighter side of life in a challenging season.

• Katie shares honestly how she is doing amidst coronavirus struggles
• Chelle talks about what it is like to parent with transparency during this season
• MacKenzie shares the challenge of being forced into schooling at home again
• Katie shares the analogy of a pot boiling over to talk about stressors and emotions
• MacKenzie talks about dealing with “parenting whiplash”
• Making the intentional effort to pull out of your own emotion and love on your family
• The kindness of communicating your needs with each other as a family

We have to be creative, but those small efforts pay big dividends in the hearts of our kids.

• Setting healthy boundaries for ourselves and our kids
• Celebrating birthdays amidst social distancing
• Join in celebrating with us #lovelypandemicbirthday
• Katie's new family tradition and how it came to be
• The simple luxury of taking a flower bath or pedicure
• Other simple ways to bring some loveliness into your day
• Share how you are doing to celebrate the little things with us #cultivatingthelovely

Affiliate links are used in this content.

The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman

You can find Katie Duckett on Instagram @may_these_arrows_fly.

You can find Chelle Bruzas on @chelle_bruzas.

You can find MacKenzie Koppa on Instagram, Facebook, and the CTL Facebook Group, of course! Join us on Patreon at Patreon.com/CultivatingtheLovely.

This episode of Cultivating the Lovely is brought to you by Embr. Save $70 off your own Embr Wave when you go to EmbrWave.com/lovely.

This week on CTL, host MacKenzie Koppa has a fun chat with Leeann Dearing and Michelle Fortin, the dynamic comedy duo known simply as Leeann & Michelle. Both wives and mothers having backgrounds in acting and television, Leeann and Michelle are passionate about using comedy to bring a smile to the faces of those in their audience. We think their conversation with MacKenzie will do that for you, as well!

• How Michelle and Leeann met and immediately formed a deep friendship
• How they started turning their parodies and sketches into a business
• The way their backgrounds helped them have success
• What got Leeann and Michelle into doing Enneagram type comedy
• What it is like playing their own types as well as the others
• How they each handle filming in public locations
• Michelle talks about how they divide up the work

• MacKenzie talks about the fun she remembers from her time in a theatre troupe
• Michelle and Leeann try to narrow down their videos to one favorite
• Leeann talks about what it is like doing live shows
• What it has been like creating content during the corona crisis
• The value of getting feedback in creating content
• A typical day for Leeann and Michelle in their own families and work

Leeann: having an impromptu “distance picnic” with Michelle and their kids

Michelle: painting rocks with her kids and placing them around the neighborhood for others to find

(Amazon affiliate links are used in this content.)

The Road Back to You by Ian Crohn

The Honest Enneagram by Sarajane Case

Gone with the Wind

The Sound of Music

The King and I

Dumb and Dumber

Typology

Jen Hatmaker

The Popcast

The Dearing Studio

You can find Leeann and Michelle on their YouTube Channel Leeann & Michelle and their website LeeannandMichelle.com. You can also follow them on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

You can find MacKenzie Koppa on Instagram, Facebook, and the CTL Facebook Group, of course! Join us on Patreon at Patreon.com/CultivatingtheLovely.

Today’s episode of Cultivating the Lovely is sponsored by Theragun. Try Theragun risk-free for 30 days with this special offer for CTL listeners. Go to Theragun.com/lovely to get up to $150 off your device.

This episode of Cultivating the Lovely is brought to you by Literati. For a limited time, go to Literati.com/lovely for 25% OFF your first two orders.

On the Cultivating the Lovely podcast this week, MacKenzie Koppa talks with Jennifer Fulwiler about her new book Your Blue Flame. Jennifer is a wife, a mother of six, and also stays busy hosting a radio talk show, doing stand-up comedy and writing! Together MacKenzie and Jennifer talk about embracing your amazing gifts to bless those around you. This is an encouraging and fun conversation, so sit back, relax and enjoy! (Amazon affiliate links are used in this content.)

• Jennifer talks about what a “blue flame” even is and why she wrote this book
• How the concept of finding your blue flame is a blessing to others
• Each of us has a gift that we can use to brighten someone else’s day
• How using your blue flame can free your ego
• Be willing to take risks and embrace your failures
• Jennifer talks about what it is like doing stand-up comedy

You have this God-given gift, and you have a duty to give it back to the world.

• Your blue flame is not about you, and you have a duty to share it with the world
• How the Enemy tries to attack when you are using your gifts
• You weren’t meant to do this alone
• What Jennifer’s current typical day versus what is a normal day

Jennifer: watching YouTube makeup tutorials and playing with new looks

Your Blue Flame

One Beautiful Dream

Office Space

Galaxy Quest

Starting Greatness

You can find Jennifer on her website JenniferFulwiler.com. You can also follow her on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

You can find MacKenzie Koppa on Instagram, Facebook, and the CTL Facebook Group, of course! Join us on Patreon at Patreon.com/CultivatingtheLovely.

Today’s episode of Cultivating the Lovely is sponsored by YogaSleep. Go to YogaSleep.com/LOVELY to get 20% OFF your next order of a sound machine for your family.

This episode of Cultivating the Lovely is brought to you by Laurel Springs School. Cultivating the Lovely listeners, register your child today at laurelsprings.com/lovely to have the registration fee waived.

On today’s episode of Cultivating the Lovely, MacKenzie talks with her good friends Katie Duckett and Jenny Wilcox about holy habits. Together they explain what that means and why they are so important, especially in challenging or uncertain seasons of life. We think this will be an uplifting conversation, so sit back, relax and be encouraged! (Amazon affiliate links are used in this content.)

• Katie introduces the topic of holy habits
• MacKenzie talks about the difference between legalistic habits and making lifestyle changes out of real desire
• How the habits Jenny and Katie cultivated grounded them in their faith
• Jenny talks about the joy of self-sacrifice and the goodness of having a God who is the caring Creator
• The great value in being faithful and consistent with a discipline

One of the things that creating healthy habits requires of you is that every day you die to self. You start to say “yes” and do something you don’t want to do.

• Jenny talks about habits as tools that help us re-center our souls
• Sourdough as an illustration of a practical holy habit
• Katie talks about the value of doing something slow
• MacKenzie is tapping into her homemaking skills again
• Jenny and Katie tell about how they got their special sourdough starter
• The value of making something beautiful with your hands
• How beholding beauty points us to God
• Being present in the small things is so crucial in these times

Mudhouse Sabbath by Laura F. Winner

Let Me Be a Woman by Elisabeth Elliot

Mother Culture by Karen Andreola

You can find Katie Duckett on Instagram @may_these_arrows_fly.

You can find Jenny Wilcox on @philovesjen.

You can find MacKenzie Koppa on Instagram, Facebook, and the CTL Facebook Group, of course! Join us on Patreon at Patreon.com/CultivatingtheLovely.

This episode of Cultivating the Lovely is brought to you by Grove. As a CTL listener, you can get a FREE 5-piece Sustainable Home starter set at Grove.co/LOVELY, plus free shipping and FREE 60-Day VIP trial with your first order.

This episode of Cultivating the Lovely is brought to you by Embr. Save $50 off your own Embr Wave when you go to EmbrWave.com/lovely and use code PODCAST at checkout.

In this special bonus episode of Cultivating the Lovely, MacKenzie Koppa continues the conversation with her friends all about flower/flour therapy. Katie Duckett, Chelle Bruzas, and Becca Lux chat more about the health benefits of sourdough and gardening and why they feel so passionate about both. If you missed yesterday's chat, you can visit boldturquoise.com/161/ to see and hear what you missed. 

• Re-thinking the idea of flowers and beauty as not having any real purpose
• Becca’s reading recommendations: